The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1887-10-03

for hark ye to the groan that grows might
Ter while | wait. Farewell FAREWELL
"Ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus
Christ, that, though he was rich, yet for
your sakes He became poor
Was there ever a contrast so overpower-
ing as that between the MONDAY of Christ's
celestial departure and the midnight of his
earthly arrival. Sure enough, the angels
were out that night in the sky, and especial
meteor acted as escort, but all that was from
other worlds, and not from this world. The
earth made no demonstration of welcome.
If one of the great princes of this world
steps out at depot cheers resound, and the
bands play, and the flags wave. But for
the arrival of this missionary Prince of the
skies not torch flared, not trumpet blew,
not a plume fluttered. All the music and
the pomp were overhead. Our world opened
for Him nothing better than barn door.
The Rajah of Cashmere sent to Victoria a
bedstead of carved gold and n canopy that
cost seven hundred and fifty thousand dol
lars, but the world had for the Prince
of heaven and earth only litter
of straw. The crown jewels in
the Tower of London amount to
fifteen million dollars, but this member of
eternal royalty had nowhere to lay His
head. To know how poor He was, ask the
camel drivers, ask the shepherds, ask Mary,
ask the three wise men of the East who
afterward came there, young Casper and
mddle-aged Balhasar and old Melchoir. To
know how poor He was examine all the
records of real estate in all that Oriental
country, and see what vineyard, or what
house, or what field he owned. Not one.
OF what mortgage was He the mortgageei
OF what tenement was He the landlords OF
what lease was He the lesseel Who ever
paid Him rents Not owning the boat on
which He sailed, or the beast on which He
rode, or the pillow on which He slept. He
had so little estate that in Orderto pay His
tax He had to perform miracle, putting
the amount of the assessment in a fish's
mouth and having it hauled ashore And
after His death the world rushed i'll to take
an inventory of His goods, and the entire
aggregate was the garments He had worn,
sleeping in them by night and travelling in
them by day, bearing on them the dust of
the highway and the saturation of the sea.
Paul in my text did not go far from hitting
the mark, did he, when he said of the mis-
sionary Prince: For your sakes He became
poorW
The world could have treated him better
if it had chosen. 1t had all the means for
making his earthly condition comfortable.
Only few years before when Pompey, the
General, arrived at Brindisi he was greeted
with arches and costly column which cele-
brated the twelve million people whom he
u,
to wear his triumphal robe in the Senate.
The world had applause for imperial butch
ers, but buffeting for the Prince Of Peace.
Plenty of golden chalices for the favored to
drink out of, but our Prince must put His
lips to the bucket of the well by the road
side after He had begged for drink. Poor:
Born i'll another mans barn and eating at
another mans table, and cruising the lake
in another mans fishing smack and buried
I in, auothaY & IN atSOlaun EOllr ingnirqd
authors wrote of His biography, and innum-
cradle lives of Christ have been
published, but He composed His auto
! biography in most compress way.
He said: 'I have trodden the wine-press
alone" Poor in the estimation of nearly
, all the prosperous classes. They called Him
Sabbath breaker, wine-bibber, traitor,
blasphemer, and ransacked the dictionary
! of opprobrium from lid to lid to express
their detestation. | can think now of only
two well-to-do-men who espoused His cause,
Nicodemus and Joseph of AriInathea. His
friends for the most part were people who,
in that climate, where ophthalmy or inf1am-
nation of the eyeball sweeps ever and anon
as a scourge, had become blind, sick people
who were anxious to get well, and troubled
people in whose family there was some one
dead or dying. If He had purse at all it
was empty, or we would have heard what
was done with the contents at the post NOR
tenn Poor! The pigeon in the dove-cote,
the rabbit in its burrow, the silk worm in
its cocoon, the bee in its hive is better pro
vided for, better off, better sheltered Aye,
the brute creation has q home on earth,
which Christ has not.
If on windy days the raven
Gambo like dancing skif,
Not the less he loves his haven
On the bosom of the cliff,
# almost with eagle pinion
Ger the Alps the chamos roam,
Yet he has some small dominion
Which no doubt he calls his home
But the Crown Prince of all heavenly do
minion had less than the raven, less than the
charaois, for he was homeless. Aye, in the
history of the universe there is no other in
stance of such coming down. Who can
count the miles from the top of the throne
to the bottom of the cross! Cleopatra, Civ
ing a banquet to Antony, took pearl worth
hundred thousand dollars, and dissolved it
in vinegar and swallowed it. But when our
Prince according to the evangelist, in His
last hours took the vinegar, in it had been
dissolved all the pearls of HIS heavenly roy
atty Down until there was no other depth for
Him to touch, troubled until there was no
other harassment to suffer poor until there
was no other pauperism to torture. Billions
of dollars spent in wars to destroy men, who
will furnish the statistics of the value Of that
precious DlOOu bHdJ was SllceA w bdNt uo
''Ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus
| Christ, that, though he was rich, yet for
your sakes He became poor"
Only those who study this text in two
places can fully reach its power, the holy
| land of Asia Minor and the holy land of
! heayen How | should like some day to
| take drink out of Jacobs WELL and take u
sail on Galilee, and read the Sermon on the
Mount while standing on Olivet, and see the
wilderness where Christ was tempted, and
be some afternoon on Calvary at about
| o'clock, the hour at which closed the cruel
fixion and sit under the sycamores and by
the side of brooks, and think and pray about
| the poverty of Him who came our souls to
| save. But you and will probably be denied
that, and so here in anotaer continent and
in another hemisphere, and IN scenes as
| different as possible, we recount as well we
may how poor our heavenly Prince became.
| And in the other holy land above we may
| all study the riches that He left
behind when He started Tor earthly
expedition. Come, let us bargain
| 60 meet each other at tho door
| of the Fathers mansion, er on the bank of
the river just where it rolls from under the
| throne, or at the outside gate. Jesus got
the contrast by exchanging that world for
this; we will get it by exchanging this
world for that There and then you viii
| understand more of the wonders Of the